St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-06-19
A New Enterprise Organized in Mime
apolis, Backed By Unlimited
Capital.
Smelling Works To Pc Erected at Once
for the Reduction OF Pre-
ci0us Ores.
The Potter Process To Be Used and a
General Revolution Confidently
Expected.
The Monopoly Of Omaha TO Be Broken
What the Potter Process
Coniemplates.


terday that in point of interest and inn
portance exceeds all of those over
which Minneapolis has been recently
Jubilating. 1t is the Minneapolis
Smelling Syndicate, which proposes to
divide with Omaha its extensive bust
ness OF smelling and refining the pre-
cious metals. The new company is not
thoroughly organized as yet, but the
sum Of 100000 has been paid down on
the capital stock, and articles of
Incorporation will be filed to-mor-
row. Prominent i'll the syndicate are
Messrs. A. j. Boardman, w. S. King, r.
Il. Langdon, John s. Pillsbury, Emer-
son Cole, E. }. Davenport and Mr..
CheeveT, who represent unlimited cap
ital, so the new company will have all
imaginable financial backing. 1t pro-
poses to engage extensively in the
smelling of gold and silver ores, and
VIII not only be able to successfully
compete with Omaha, but will
have such improved railway facili-
Ties and advantages in freight
control the smelling business of the
large territory to the northwest of us.
1t may not be generally known, but it is
fact, that all the Montana and Idaho
ore shipped to Omaha comes through
Minneapolis by the Northern Pacific
road, so there is doubling up OF dis
lance in shipping out bullion or the
rich amalgam of gold and lead, as it
comes from the smelling stacks. Min
neapoliS
COMMANDS BETTER RATES
east than Omaha, and is nearer all min
ing districts, except the Black Hills,
so that an immense advantage will he
obtained. The new company has Sc
fected piece of land, ten-arce plat,
near Hopkins, lying adjacent to the
four railroads, the Minneapolis &s ST.
Louis, Manitoba, Omaha and Milwau-
kee, and in theneighborhood of running
water. Architect E. S. Stebbins has
drawn the plans of the buildings, and
work will begin Immediately, with the
expectation of making the first charge
about the middle of September.
THE MOST IMPORTANT FACT
n connection with the new enterprise
is that it has decided to employ the new
Potter process, which will, it is conf
IDENTIFY predicted, revOlutiOnize Smelt-
ing. A contract has been made with the
Potter company and James A. Potter, of
Chicago, the inventor of the new pro-
cess, is here to Superintend the construc-
ton OF the buildings, machinery, and
the hrSt hfty-ton smelling stack.
The Potter process has been
in demand all over the smeIt-
ing and mining world and
the company recently declined flatter-
ing offers from the Black Hills smelters,
for the reason that it was desired to
locate the first works in Minneapolis.
The deal with the Minneapolis syndicate
was conducted by G. E. Baldwin, the
secretary of the Potter company, who
first appreciated the value of the new
invention and. whose shrewdness in
duced him to secure and con-
troll the process through the
company. None of the Potter has been
sold, beyond few treasury shares,
and none of it is i'm the market to-day.
Some idea of the prospective value of
the Potter process may be obtained
from the statement that under the pres
ent process it costs $4,000 to reduce
ton of dry ore containing $50 ounces of
silver, while the same ore can be re-
duced by the Potter process for S.. 81,
Mr.. Baldwin furnishes the following
descriptive comparison of the two
processes:
THE PRESENT PROCESS.
1t Is well known that molten lead has
strong affinity for molten gold and
silver, and upon this principle is based
the process of smelling. To bring about
this union, the gold or silver and lead
ores are reduced together in the ordi-
nary blast furnace, thus bringing the
molten lead in direct contact with the
slagS of the precious metal which are
taken up by the lead and carried to the
bottom of the furnace from which it is
drawn through a syphon tap, as a base
bullion, and which contains about one
half per cent. of precious metal, the bal
ance being lead, copper, zinc, etc. This
bullion is passed through a softening
and deSllveriZlng process to separate the
precious metals. This process is as fol-
lows: The bullion is melted in rever-
bratory furnace and conveyed into cast
iron pots of from ten to twenty
tons capacity for the purpose
of deSilveriZing. which is done by
adding about one and one-half per cent.
of zinc and stirring the same together.
The zines affinity for the gold and sill
it gathers the precious metals and rises
to the top and is skinned off with per-
forated ladies, and from this a zinc
bullion is formed, the remaining mass
of lead being cast into pigs.
The estimated cost of reducing one
ton of dry silver ore containing $50
ounces of silver, and the lead necessary
to extract it from its ore is as follows:
One ton silver ere, $50 ounces per ton
2 tons lead ore. 60 per cent. lead. $2S 90
600 pounds limestone ......... rs
400 pounds iron ore, 20 per cent. iron IS
1000 pounds COKE. 90
. 30 pounds zinc, for desilverizing 80. 3 go
Labor and fuel. fol. desilverizing -. 90
Labor mixing and charging .......... l 90
Labor handling base bullion. ......... SO
Total. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS $40 60
This produces 2,400 pounds of base
bullion containing about one-half per
cent. of precious metal, and the balance
lie Load of inforinI 1n,1oiit,r